Add Annotations

Annotations are graphical elements (different types of shapes, custom text, and so on) that you can render on your chart to make it more informative, while making it visually appealing.

In this article we'll create a Spline chart and add annotations to it. A spline chart using annotations to highlight a particular anchor along with text is shown below:

FusionCharts will load here..
{
    "chart": {
        "caption": "Average Monthly Temperature in Texas",
        "yAxisName": "Average Monthly Temperature",
        "anchorradius": "5",
        "plotToolText": "Average temperature in $label is <b>$dataValue</b>",
        "showHoverEffect": "1",
        "showvalues": "0",
        "numberSuffix": "°C",
        "theme": "fusion",
        "anchorBgColor": "#72D7B2",
        "paletteColors": "#72D7B2"
    },
    "annotations": {
        "groups": [
            {
                "id": "anchor-highlight",
                "items": [
                    {
                        "id": "high-star",
                        "type": "circle",
                        "x": "$dataset.0.set.7.x",
                        "y": "$dataset.0.set.7.y",
                        "radius": "12",
                        "color": "#cc0000",
                        "border": "2",
                        "borderColor": "#0075c2"
                    },
                    {
                        "id": "label",
                        "type": "text",
                        "text": "Hottest Month",
                        "fillcolor": "#0075c2",
                        "rotate": "90",
                        "x": "$dataset.0.set.7.x+75",
                        "y": "$dataset.0.set.7.y-2"
                    }
                ]
            }
        ]
    },
    "data": [
        {
            "label": "Jan",
            "value": "1"
        },
        {
            "label": "Feb",
            "value": "5"
        },
        {
            "label": "Mar",
            "value": "10"
        },
        {
            "label": "Apr",
            "value": "12"
        },
        {
            "label": "May",
            "value": "14"
        },
        {
            "label": "Jun",
            "value": "16"
        },
        {
            "label": "Jul",
            "value": "20"
        },
        {
            "label": "Aug",
            "value": "22"
        },
        {
            "label": "Sep",
            "value": "20"
        },
        {
            "label": "Oct",
            "value": "16"
        },
        {
            "label": "Nov",
            "value": "7"
        },
        {
            "label": "Dec",
            "value": "2"
        }
    ]
}

The full code of the above sample is given below:

import FusionCharts from 'fusioncharts';
import Charts from 'fusioncharts/fusioncharts.charts';
import FusionTheme from 'fusioncharts/themes/fusioncharts.theme.fusion';

// Add the chart and theme as dependency
FusionCharts.addDep(Charts);
FusionCharts.addDep(FusionTheme);

// Create an Instance with chart options
var chartInstance = new FusionCharts({
    type: 'spline',
    renderAt: 'chart-container',
    width: '700',
    height: '400',
    dataFormat: 'json',
    dataSource: {
        "chart": {
            "caption": "Average Monthly Temperature in Texas",
            "yAxisName": "Average Monthly Temperature",
            "anchorradius": "5",
            "plotToolText": "Average temperature in $label is <b>$dataValue</b>",
            "showHoverEffect": "1",
            "showvalues": "0",
            "numberSuffix": "°C",
            "theme": "fusion",
            "anchorBgColor": "#72D7B2",
            "paletteColors": "#72D7B2"
        },
        "annotations": {
            "groups": [{
                "id": "anchor-highlight",
                "items": [{
                    "id": "high-star",
                    "type": "circle",
                    "x": "$dataset.0.set.7.x",
                    "y": "$dataset.0.set.7.y",
                    "radius": "12",
                    "color": "#cc0000",
                    "border": "2",
                    "borderColor": "#0075c2"
                }, {
                    "id": "label",
                    "type": "text",
                    "text": "Hottest Month",
                    "fillcolor": "#0075c2",
                    "rotate": "90",
                    "x": "$dataset.0.set.7.x+75",
                    "y": "$dataset.0.set.7.y-2"
                }]
            }]
        },
        "data": [{
            "label": "Jan",
            "value": "1"
        }, {
            "label": "Feb",
            "value": "5"
        }, {
            "label": "Mar",
            "value": "10"
        }, {
            "label": "Apr",
            "value": "12"
        }, {
            "label": "May",
            "value": "14"
        }, {
            "label": "Jun",
            "value": "16"
        }, {
            "label": "Jul",
            "value": "20"
        }, {
            "label": "Aug",
            "value": "22"
        }, {
            "label": "Sep",
            "value": "20"
        }, {
            "label": "Oct",
            "value": "16"
        }, {
            "label": "Nov",
            "value": "7"
        }, {
            "label": "Dec",
            "value": "2"
        }]
    }
});// Render
chartInstance.render();

The above chart has been rendered using the following steps:

  1. Include the necessary libraries and components using import. For example, fusioncharts library, etc.

  2. Add the chart and theme as dependency.

  3. Create an instance of the chart with chart options. In the JSON object:

    • Set the chart type as column2d. Find the complete list of chart types with their respective alias here.
    • Set the width and height of the chart in pixels.
    • Set the dataFormat as JSON.
    • Embed the json data as the value of dataSource.
    • Create an annotations object in the dataSource, to specify the cosmetics and functionalities of the annotation.